So I got a bit aereated about the starring role which Peter Hennessy gave to the Gaggia espresso machine & the influence on Britain of the coffee bars it inspired.
Blow me down, suddenly Gaggia is all over the place.
The Partisan Coffee House, a New Left enterprise of the 1950s, met its demise, in part it is claimed, through competition from the nearby Gaggia Coffee House. Italian espresso gave the lefties more of a kick than wimpy French filtre.
Sadly, however, Friday brought the news that Gaggia UK is itself teetering on the brink of administration.
SAECO (an entirely separate company) which owns the global Gaggia brand, was itself recently taken over by Philips, the Dutch electrical giant. That makes me feel optimistic; in my father’s opinion, Philips was one of only 2 trustworthy makers of electrical goods, because they were a ‘proper’ engineering firm.
